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Fairmount gets some good words
The RTD takes a look at Fairmount in Lookin’ good in the neighborhood.
1100 block of 23rd Street in Fairmount
From the article:
Fairmount, one of Richmond’s streetcar suburbs, could soon get another tool in its battle with blight.
“City officials are working to get [Fairmount] recognized as a state and national historic district in hopes of encouraging private reinvestment. Such recognition would allow property owners to receive tax credits for up to 45 percent of certain renovation costs.”
[…]
And while Fairmount might not have the historic panache of Church Hill or Jackson Ward, it does have historic importance locally, Potterfield said.
Much of the neighborhood was developed from the 1880s to the 1920s, and its buildings largely reflect Queen Anne-style architecture, Potterfield said. About 700 buildings are expected to be surveyed as part of a yearlong process to prepare the nomination.
Props to Mary Thompson and Augustine Carter for doing such great things back this way for so long and a woot woot for the New Visions Civic League. Thumbs up to Better Housing Coalition, too, for making a concrete difference.
If you don’t know this area too well, check out the new houses on Short Q Street between 22nd and 23rd, and the renovations and construction happening on the 1100 and 1200 blocks of 22nd/23rd/24th (for example).
Very good news!
The print version of this has a map of Fairmount and photos of Mary Thompson and Augustine Carter.
I just stumbled across this website. I haven’t finished looking yet, but am wondering and hoping that there is something like this out there about old Fairmount. I lived at the corner of 20th and T st. from my birth till moving in 1956. So far, I haven’t seen anything about Luck’s Field, the playground across the street from me. Our home was right on the corner and was demolished before I realized it!
Please feel free to comment. I’m pleased to have found this site.
Camille S.
Camille, All of the stories that relate to Fairmount will be in the Fairmount archive. The only real Faimount history that I’ve discovered is in Fairmount historic resource survey Q&A at EDI. I’d love to know more about what it was like in the area back then.
Hello, John,
I’m STILL browsing the photos. What a great site! I saw the postcard of my church, then and now, Fairmount Christian (it was F.Ave. Church of Christ). I’m going to save your info and look at that when I have the time. Thank you. This is a terrific resource and I appreciate your answering me.
Just before I saw that you had responded, I had been reading something you wrote about the photos in Mary Wingfield Scott’s book, Old Richmond Neighborhoods. I got a copy through a rare book finder years ago. My husband wanted to get it for me and had made an appointment with the lady herself. He said she was a “crusty old broad” and he really liked her. She told him she only had her personal copy of the book and he “sure as the dickens couldn’t have that.” He said it was a treat to spend the time with her.
I look forward to “speaking” to you again.
Camille Sauvager